Scentzilla!

Le Couvent Des Minimes ~ Orange Blossom Body Softening Cream

What a gorgeous scent. Victoria was so right about this lotion. This cream has a nice rich texture that absorbs quickly, leaving the most beautiful orange blossom and softly woody scent on me. The heavenly aroma lingers for hours after I apply. It’s a must-try even for hard-core orange blossom addicts. I would swim in giant pools of it, were it economically feasible. I would slather everyone I come into contact with in it, were it socially acceptable. I would spread it on toast, were it not toxic to ingest. I would wear it in a box, with a fox, in a house, and with a mouse. I would wear it here and I would wear it there. Say, I would wear it anywhere! I do so like Orange Blossom Body Softening Cream! Thank you, Victoria-I-Am! (Le Couvent Des Minimes is carred by the Bath and Body Works chain in the US. I don’t know where to find it outside of the States, unfortunately.)

Michel Comte ~ Shared Water pour femme

Shared Water begins as if it’s a floral only scent, and initially gives the impression that it’s going to go nowhere. But top burns off quickly, revealing the warm aroma of jasmine rice cooking in a steamer. To me this is a gourmand scent, since even the thought of jasmine rice makes me embarassingly hungry without olfactory provocation. In actuality there’s a slight salinity in the scent, which would more likely classify Shared Water as belonging to the “marine” family. It’s lovely, if very light, but sadly it’s too far out of my own budget to consider paying for a full bottle of such a discreet fragrance (I’m not really a discreet sort of gal, heh!) The only place that *I* know of to get Shared Water is via First-in-Fragrance. (A word about the spraying mechanism: it’s a little different. Rather than spraying straight at you, it sprays up and out.)

Apivita ~ Euphoria

Two years ago, ULTA (it’s like Sephora, but with drugstore makeup) sold the BEST WHITE CHOCOLATE BATH LINE EVER during a Christmas promotion. Sorry to shout in capitals, but it was sooo good. How good? It’s two years later, and I’m still bitching about it never being offered again. I think I only paid five bucks apiece for the lotion and shower gel, but it was such a rich, almost nutty white chocolate scent. I loved it so much, and was hoping they’d sell it again this last holiday season, but alas they did not. Sigh. So now I’m trying to find something I will love almost as much.

The first suggestion I got was for Apivita’s Euphoria line of bath and body products. I picked up a sampler to try them all out. Euphoria smells strongly bergamot, with a touch of white tea, and vanillic white chocolate underneath. It’s rather nice, and I bet would be wonderful in summer when heavy scents turn rank in the summer heat.

The body scrub was the real winner for me in the sampler. The scent in it seemed more vibrant to me than other products in the line, tart but not sour, while never losing its vanillic sweetness. The scrub’s pumice is not so big as to be irritating, but not so small as to be ineffectual. I might buy this again, once my hunt for a new BEST WHITE CHOCOLATE BATH LINE EVER is completed, and whether or not I find a new best one.

The body milk lotion has a nice medium weight density, and feels very cooling to me. I think I might like it better if I owned a complimenting perfume to wear, but it was all right. I just don’t have anything I felt matched it well enough to layer over it.

The milk bath strangely smelled a little plasticky to me. I could smell the “Euphoria” perfume, but I also smelled rubber doggy chew toys. Uh, yeah. So I’ll be skipping this one in the future. I think if you’re one of those folks who doesn’t notice the plasticky smells in the Philosophy line of 3-in-1s then you wouldn’t notice it here either.

Using Euphoria’s shampoo was surprisingly nice. It, too, bore a touch of plastic, but nothing I can’t live with. I did like the smell, which I got to enjoy while I lathered, but I wasn’t stuck it with all day long because it rinsed out completely. Love that. It has very low lather, which is something I normally like, since I find that there’s a direct correlation between high lather and me sporting crispy scarecrow-lady hair usually. However in this case the very low lather made it tricky to work with in my below shoulder length hair - it’s almost too low. I liked it anyhow, and it did not strip or dry out my hair in the least, not even a little and I can count on my hands how few shampoos can accomplish that. I’m on the fence if I’d ever get it again, but I might someday if I’m in the mood for a fun scented one. For now I’ll just stick with my regular stand-by products.

I would strongly recommend if you want to try these to go to b-glowing for the sampler kit ($10), or better yet just a full size bottle of the scrub, and using code instyle06 for 25% off your purchase.

Book Review

I was so excited to find a perfume themed book for kids! The Perfume of Memory is illustrated so beautifully by artist Jean Claverie, but alas the story by Michelle Nikly disappoints a bit. The story is about a kingdom where perfume making is held divine, yet only men are allowed to be perfumers, much to the chagrin of a young girl and her father. The prose itself is lovely enough for adults to enjoy, yet not too difficult for elementary school aged children to get through. Unfortunately, the plot had a big giant hole in it, which I wondered if my own twins would spot. And they did. The “villian” in the story is really a misunderstood man, and he gets thrown into prison for his machinating against the kingdom in a desperate scheme to remind the people of their perfume making heritage. But, what bugged my kids is that he somehow gets out of prison with no explanation given. They didn’t mind that he did escape, mind you, they just got scrunchy-browed over HOW. Moreover, the villain contrived to create a perfume that was supposed to be “wrong,” but it sounded more enticing than any of the “good” perfumes the protagonists offered in the book. I don’t know that I would necessarily drop everything and run out to buy this, but if you spot it on sale or at your library it’s still worth a perusal (especially for its wonderful artwork.) ISBN#0439082064